African Feminisms (Afems) 2017 Programme

fMl

Six Mountains on her back:
(Re)reading African
Feminisms Colloquium

Hosted by the Departments of English (Dr Lynda Gichanda Spencer) and Fine
Arts (Dr Sharlene Khan) and Finding Africa (Thando Njovane)

Rhodes University
21-22 July 2017

RHODES UNIVERSITY

Where leaders leam

THE

ANDREW W.

MELLON

National
Research
RF Foundation

UCAPI

RINDING

Africa

FOUNDATION

Programme

Friday 21 July 2017

Fine Arts Department, Gallery

9h

Registration

9.30-9.50h

Welcome and Opening

Than do Njovane

9.50h

Tea

10.10-llh

Keynote Address

Dr Danai Mupotsa (Wits University)
Feminism as Pedagogy

Panels

English Department

Seminar Room

Fine Arts Department
Seminar Room

ll-13h

Women and Visual Arts

An African feminist conversation
about the KhoiKhoi and San women
in the Rock Art of South Africa -
Beverly Barry (UCKAR)

African Feminist Thought

A Stiwanist Study of Selected

Works of Francophone Authors
- Joy Joseph (UCKAR)

Feminisms in Visual Culture; Un¬
silencing historically marginalized
artists - Amy von Witt (UCKAR)

Womanism and Critical Method in
African Diaspora Writing - Brendon
Nicholls (Leeds)

‘Defining ambiguity’: Theorising
a politics of affectivity in contem¬
porary South Africa through Mary
Sibande’s ‘Sophie’

- Erin de Kock (UCKAR)

Chair: Dr Sharlene Khan

The re-articulation of a holistic
African female subjectivity in Kol-
eka Putuma’s Collective Amnesia -
Manthipe Moila (Rhodes)

Chair: Dr Betty Govinden

Friday 21 July 2017

2

13h

14-16h

16h

16.15

-18.15h

18.30

Lunch

English Department
Seminar Room

Intersectionality

Pompoms and Struggle Songs:

The Limited Space for Feminism
in #feesmustfall - Chelsey Wilken
(Rhodes)

Towards a Decolonial Feminist Dis¬
ability Studies for Southern Africa -
Kharnita Mohamed (UCT)

Patriarchy Masked as
Decoloniality: Problematizing
‘Decolonial’ Masculinist Critiques
of Intersectionality - Marzia Milazzo
(Rhodes/Vanderbilt)

Chair: Dr Danai Mupotsa

Fine Arts Department
Seminar Room

Alternative Spaces
The politics of erasure and exposure
of the black female bodies in site-
specific performances. Discussing
Woman in a Passage (2014) -
Pumelela Nqelenga (UKZN)

Towards eradicating domestic vio¬
lence in Nigeria: The peace education
option - Chibuzor Nwobueze (Rivers
State) and James Okolie-Osemene
(Ibadan)

Chair: Siphokazi Jonas

Tea

Fine Arts Department

Thinking Through, Talking Back: Creative Theorisation as Sites of Praxis-Theory
An Art on our Mind creative dialogue between Dr Sharlene Khan, Prof Pumla
Dineo Gqola, Dr Yvette Abrahams, Prof Neelika Jayawardane and Dr Betty Govinden

Launch of artist book I Make Art by Sharlene Khan

Perfomance Poetry by Siphokazi Jonas and Betty Govinde

Exhibition: BEING HERE, BECOMING HER (curated by Refilwe Nkomo and Thato
Mogotsi) in conversation with with UCKAR performances and artwork by Heidi
Sincuba, Erin de Kock, Khwezi Zungu, Samkela Stamper and Akissi Beukman
(co-curated by Buhle Siwendu and Sharlene Khan)

Saturday 22 July 2017

3

9-llh

llh

11.15

-13.15h

13.15

-14.15h

English Department
Seminar Room

Labour

An intersectional analysis of work
place discrimination in South Afri¬
can labour markets - Jamela Hoveni
(Rhodes)

Perpetuation of female dependency
syndrome in South Africa mirrors
religious narratives: The case of Ruth

- Thembinkosi Twalo (HSRC)

The unfolding of African feminism
in CODESRIA - Nimi Hoffmann
(Rhodes)

Chair: Prof Pumla Gqola

Tea

Imaging Women

Paw-Paw Politics: Lady Skollie and
the Curating of Contradiction -
Wamuwi Mbao (Stellenbosch)

Women in African Cinema: Female
Identity on Screen - Lizelle Bisschoff
(Glasgow)

Re-imagining African feminism
through the Afro futuristic lens -
Tshepiso Maleswena (Wits)

The Message of Misogyny in Hip-
Hop Music and its Gender Dynamics

- Mamaputle Boikanyo (Rhodes)

Chair: Prof Neelika Jayawardane
Lunch

Fine Arts Department
Seminar Room

African Feminist Literary Readings
Demolishing the mountain within:
Debunking patriarchy and self-re-
flexivity in African Womens Writing
- Susan Okpala (North-West)

Queering Domestic Space and Re¬
productive Time in Zde Wicomb’s
“Mrs Pringles Bed” - Jenny du Preez
(Rhodes)

The Future of African Feminisms/
Miriam Makeba and Cosmo-exis¬
tential Feminism - Palesa Mokwena
(UCKAR)

Chair: Thando Njovane

Economics and Policy

South African foreign policy and
its implications for feminist Inter¬
national Relations: the legacies of
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Maite
Nkoana-Mashabane - Siphokazi
Magadla and Nica Cornell (Rhodes)

African Feminist Futures: Fashioning
Life in a Neoliberal World - Miriam
Kilimo (Emory)

Chair: Dr Yvette Abrahams

Saturday 22 July 2017

4

14.15

-15.15h

English Department
Seminar Room

Sexuality

Looking at disruption within femi¬
nist and anti-rape activism - Gorata
Chengeta (Wits)

Challenging sexism, misogyny and
censorship: A search for alternative
spaces for feminist discourses in
Zimbabwe - Ncube Gibson (Stellen¬
bosch)

#ThisIsMyVagina: A Political Peer
Sexual Education Programme -
Nyiko Lebogang Shikwambane
(Wits)

Chair: Prof Pumla Gqola

Fine Arts Department
Seminar Room

Life Writing

(Re)visiting writing race-d queer¬
ness: a fictocritical exploration of
writing the race-d queer South
African Womxn - Chantelle Croeser
(Stellenbosch)

A song in the night: the feminist
ordeals of Nor ah Mumba - Ranka
Primorac (Southampton)

Ekhaya nasemzini: Negotiating
home in Noni Jabavu’s life narratives
Drawn in Colour: African Contrasts
and The Ochre People - Athambile
Masola (Pretoria)

Chair: Dr Lynda Spencer

Closing Remarks
Dr Lynda Gichanda Spencer

Dinner

Afems cover artwork by Buhle Siwendu and Tayla Solomon (2017)